Final straw

After the news from the SABS we contacted Pick n Pay and explained our situation and wanted to set up a meeting to discuss any future possibilities. This, however, fell through and they are no longer interested in working with us.

This might be the final straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of ORA continuing as a company. Every avenue we have tried (and we have tried A LOT) has come back negative and we will have to sit down and seriously discuss our next manoeuvre or exit strategy for the company. There are bleak times ahead.

SABS follow up

The SABS have surprisingly gotten back to us quite quickly but unfortunately they do not have a standard for disposable toilet seat covers. There are also not enough products in the market for them to create a standard.

This is both a good and a bad thing: we do not have to go through the tedious process of their testing of our product and manufacturing conditions but the loss means that we lose that little edge we hoped to gain. It is not a train smash as we can still continue to make the covers but it would have been nice to have the SABS badge on the front of our packs  

SABS visit

We visited the SABS offices in an attempt to get our product certified and approved so that the public knows that it is safe to use. This would also make it easier for us to sell our products to stores because the product would be verified.

They did not find any standard at the office for disposable toilet seat covers and will have to check with their main office. In the mean time they gave us a list of tissue based products that we could use to see if our product was closely related to any of them. We will have to wait and see if the head office can give us positive feedback

Affiliate feedback

One of our group members recruited his mother as an affiliate to sell some covers to people at her work. She managed to sell all the products she had with her but she did find difficulties, the same difficulties we had encountered at the expo. People really liked the concept and the product but were reluctant to make the R20 purchase.

So the problem we face goes deeper than just the student market. However, there was some good constructive criticism from the users that we would have used if we were going to make a second batch of covers.  

Failed Strategies

Failures tend to disappear from educational agendas mostly because information about business failures is often scarce or ignored completely, yet it is inevitable just like what I have seen with ORA Hygiene  On the other hand, information on successful companies and their success strategies is always available. 

Companies that pursue unsuccessful strategies either change their business strategies or they go out of business, which should have been the case with ORA Hygiene  A successful company is described as having used visionary management and innovative marketing strategies while a failing business is accused of poor business management and overall bad business skills. The communication should change and more entrepreneurs should be taught about failure because that would save millions of aspiring entrepreneurs a lot of money from making costly mistakes.

Successful People Make It Look Easy.

From what I have gathered this year entrepreneurship is about making mistakes. The biggest mistake I think we made this was not developing dispensers from the beginning instead of packaging our products. 

The one thing that irritated me that I came to realise this year with ORA Hygiene  is that successful people make it look easy. It's easy looking in from the outside. We don't often notice or acknowledge their failures. Successful people evaluate their failures, come up with new solutions to the challenge and try again - this time more educated than the first. Successful people also don't allow the fear of failure to stop them from achieving their goals.

By reflecting on the failures and challenges of ORA Hygiene I discovered that the ultimate success secret is that failure is inevitable in business and its about managing that failure by converting it into a lesson rather than a setback. By experiencing hardships and rejects as an entreprenuer you then grow, expand and  are able compete in an ever changing South African and international marketplace. 

My meeting with Born to be Free Non-Profit Organisation Today

This is a group that feel that they have a responsibility for a child that was born after 1994, a child born into the new South Africa, born into a South Africa that does not shackle and deprive people of their rights based on colour or gender. The born free group have a different battle to fight; they fight to ensure that the principles of the Freedom charter, as adopted by the Congress of the People in Kliptown (26 June 1955), are up- held and used as a mechanism to hold our leaders accountable. The group has been involved with a local school in Cape Town supplying the school with needed desktop computers for junior phases within the school.

The meeting today basically highlighted the potential to collaborate with group for their next project to maybe focus on hygiene instead of computer literacy for next years grade 1's. A collaboration with charismatic non-profit group could give ORA Hygiene some form assurance regarding the stock on hand.

Reflection on Innovation in Africa

To a certain extent ORA Hygiene Covers is an innovation to a big African issues of public toilet hygiene which is a big issue all across the continent. The sub-Saharan African retail market appealing because the African consumer have certainly become more sophisticated in what they want and at what price they want it at. Which is the issue for a product like ORA Hygiene because consumers don't know what the product is and what it can do for them and would rather spend their monies on something they know and trust.

Succeeding in Africa in the age of innovation requires companies like ORA Hygiene to rethink the approach to new product and process development. From what I have learnt this year, for a new company like ORA Hygiene to succeed managers must collaborate with external partners, particularly smaller entrepreneurs, to identify, develop and scale up promising new product and process ideas. Additionally, companies need to look at innovation opportunities beyond just products and processes, and consider business models, consumer experiences and brand engagement as part of an overall innovation portfolio

Mac Sales Affiliate - Liesbeek

Mac is, in his twenties and a spaza shop owner of Liesbeek cafe in Rondebosch Cape Town. The shop which he opened in 2015 (selling basic food stuffs and drinks sourced from the nearby wholesaler in Ottery) to support himself and his family. Mac, the owner of the Spaza Shop started this micro businesses for various reasons, but can nevertheless be regarded as an entrepreneur in that he have identified an opportunity. The beauty of his business is that he carries low overheads, which enables him and his team to become more competitive and responsive to demand changes.

After a lengthy conversation with him over the phone yesterday about the slow progress of the ORA Hygiene Covers of which is stocked in his store we realised that the South African market might not be ready for a product like a disposable toilet seat cover. With Mac on the ground having constant conversations with customers he's insight is real and valid about consumer feelings and attitudes towards the product. That consumers like the product idea but still aren't willing to pay for such a product because it is still something new and unknown.

Next Focus

Sales affiliates incentive schemes:

Strategy for convenience seeker market at the University of Cape Town at the different residences. The strategy is to attract students at the different residences like Forrest Hill, Obz Square etc. that can distribute hygiene covers on behalf of ORA Hygiene. These affiliates will act as agents for ORA Hygiene and will cooperate with ORA Hygiene for sales. Affiliates will receive 25% of every sale once they have returned the stock and sales made.

The strategy emphasizes on approaching NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) that come from previously disadvantaged homes. ORA Hygiene wants to collaborate with these students by partnering for distribution and marketing purposes. Should a student sell 100 units in a week, students will receive R500. Should they achieve the same target the following week, the affiliates would have made R1 000 from ORA Hygiene.

The strategy will require that all affiliates are registered with ORA Hygiene, providing a copy of student card, ID and other personal details. Payments will be made via electronic payments.

This strategy should take us through to survive till we breakeven before the end of October 2016 when the business is scheduled to close.

Valuable Lessons From Seven Stars Retail

General lessons that were learnt from the two members from Seven Stars was that the retail environment in South Africa is extremely competitive and therefore very tough. Both Clive and Warren provided the team with some very valuable insights about pricing and sales in regard to retail market in South Africa. Some of these insights made references to popular brands like Pick n Pay, Disc-hem, Mass Mart and Clicks on how these brands operate and treat their retail partners.

Topics that included pricing rebates, distribution and positioning were some of the crucial information that was shared at the meeting with the two members from Seven Stars Retail.

I personally felt that interaction was very useful especially for postgraduate students with an entrepreneurial heart and tenacity. Information is one of the most valuable resources an entrepreneur can attain, especially when the information is effective and leads to any form of growth. This interaction also gave ORA Hygiene insight on what it takes to be a small business in a developing market like South Africa.

This TED video explains what it means it to be a small business owner in a market like South Africa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBDfJY-xZw

Clicks Meeting

This morning we met with Warren and Clive from Seven Stars at the Clicks offices here in Cape Town.  They were kind enough to let us talk to the Clicks contact on their time.  Unfortunately they contact said that the product would not be of interest to them, and that the cost of production for the product was excessively high, especially after adding VAT, retailer rebates and distribution center commissions on top on paying merchandisers.  This shows us that retail is a very hard business, and that you need to have something that others consider to be special otherwise you will not make it.  It has been a very enlightening experience having to consider all the little extra charges that are added all the way along. A tough market to try and get into.

Meeting with Warren & Clive

The meeting with Clive and Warren from Seven Stars Retail didn't go the way ORA Hygiene expected  things to go. Seven Stars Retail, unfortantey pulled out of the proposed deal due to pricing disagreements between the two entities.

Seven Stars Retail were interested in purchasing packaged sheets for under R1,00 which meant that ORA Hygiene would be operating at a loss. This is despite the fact that Seven Stars would be making a bulk purchase yet the time and effort would not amount to a favourable outcome for ORA Hygiene and its partners.

For Seven Stars the deal would not lead the business into any profits as profit margins were already too tight even though Seven Stars was opting to resell units to retail pharmaceutical companies like Disc-hem and independent pharmacies in the Gauging region.

The overcome outcome of the meeting was unfavourable for both entities with neither achiveing much.

The meeting adjourned at 19:30

Meeting Week

ORA Hygiene will be meeting with Seven Stars Retail tommorow, which is a company based in Johannesburg to discuss a possible wholesale transaction between the two entities. The proposal is sell 10 000 disposable toilet seat sheets for a minimum of R1 a sheet to Seven Stars Retail for a 3-month(Negotiable) trail period. The meeting will take place at Foresters Arms Restaurant and Pub (locally known as Forries). As nerve wracking as the meeting seems to be for the partners, it is a very essential for ORA Hygiene in order to drive sales for business as there has been a negative outcome of sales in the past weeks.